Keyona Williams

I attribute my success to years of hard work and dedication and trust in the Lord. I know that I've been gifted with charisma and the gift of gab, and my time at the University of Akron and the mentorship that I received there all led me into a position of being able to be in a company like USA Today, and to be in the position that I am, and to have the trust that they have in me. Just to be able to have the opportunity to be where I'm at and to do what I am, I think it's amazing.

The best career advice I've ever received is to stay focused, to stay on task, and to make sure that you're setting up your day. Even though we work from home, it's very easy to just want to stay in pajamas. I've had to learn how to get up and to dress myself like I'm going into the office, and to get myself together so that I really feel like I'm working during the day. And to give my full time on the clock, it can be really easy to slack off again at home. But just having the fundamentals that I'm not off of the clock until this time has been seeing me through. I've had that advice from a lot of higher-ups from different places that I've been, and a lot of mentorship that has definitely led me in the direction of being able to set my day correctly.

My advice to women entering my industry is to be consistent and to have faith in yourself. It's a hard thing to just jump into and to learn, however it is possible. And it just takes patience, and it also takes tenacity and the ability to ask the right questions at the right time.

I think that the war right now is making it really hard on advertisements overall. I've worked a lot with people in the travel industry that are taking a direct hit, not just because of gas prices, but also the airline issues. People just don't have the money right now, and it's directly affecting our customers. That would be probably the biggest struggle I would see right now. On the flip side, I think that there is still great opportunity in working with small to medium businesses during this time. It's just about finding the right client and being able to offer a solution at a time like this at the same time as well.

I am a believer. Me and my husband were baptized into Christianity a few years ago, and I truly believe that what I live in my real life is what I live at work. I try to live my best with a life of integrity and honesty, and to go every day into making the world a better place than the possibility that I can. I sell advertisements, so that's not the biggest thing in the world, but if I can make somebody's day better, or just have a meaningful conversation, that matters to me. So that's something that I take into the real world with me on and off the desk. I think that that's important.